The
athletic field at Calvary Chapel in Philadelphia is intensively
utilized. The Academy offers boys’ soccer and football
as well as girls’ soccer and field hockey. All practices
and all games are played on the same single field. In addition
to these school activities, the church offers a summer-long
soccer program for players ages four through high school.
The field is occupied pretty much daily from early spring
through late fall.
Added to that, the field was built on native soil that was
predominately clay. Drainage was a big issue to say the
least. According to Fred McGonagle, Calvary Chapel Maintenance
Supervisor, they had been trying to amend the soil for the
past 10 years to no avail. Grass simply could not take root
in the heavily used, poorly drained, dense soil.
The spring of 2006 ended all of that. Calvary Chapel hired
Delaware Valley Athletic Fields to renovate the field. The
process began with a complete regrading to ensure proper
slope, pitch, and evenness. 200 tons of top soil were trucked
in and graded to match the sub-grade.
This was followed by the installation of the Multi-Flow
drainage system. This system was comprised of parallel collector
lines spread out across the field to gather the water and
a transport pipe to carry the water away. Collector lines
were spaced every 5 yards. All the lines ran to the south
side of the field where they emptied into an 8-inch PVC
transport pipe which emptied into a retention pond. The
sideline PVC transport pipe was placed below the level of
the Multi-Flow collector lines. The transport was placed
at grade and partially backfilled. Access was then created
with a 3-inch hole saw. Each of the 24 Multi-Flow collector
lines emptied into the top of the transport pipe, utilizing
an exclusive Multi-Flow connector. Connection was fast,
easy, neat, and effective.
The spoil removed from the trenches was carefully removed
from the field and the trenches were backfilled with coarse
sand. The center of the field was then sodded and the sides
were seeded. The field was then closed for the summer in
order to allow the turf to become well established.
Larry
George from DVH was pleased with the convenience and performance
of the Multi-Flow system. He liked the way all the Multi-Flow
components snapped together easily and effectively “without
duct tape.” He was especially impressed with Multi-Flow’s
method of tapping into the PVC transport pipes. George summarized,
“We are definitely going to be using Multi-Flow again
on upcoming projects.”
McGonagle
reported that in mid May, two weeks after the project was
completed, North Philly received a dramatic two-inch deluge.
The field responded remarkably well. No pockets of standing
water were to be found and the 8” exit pipe was operating
at over half-capacity shortly after the rain.
The
Calvary Chapel maintenance staff is confident that the field
will be in great shape for football season! (and field hockey
season, and boys’ soccer season, and girls’
soccer season, and summer soccer camp, and .....)
